


No Such Thing as Fate.

by dizzymisslizzie



Series: Meant to Fall. [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, in which joanna and jim are dumb and cute together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-05
Updated: 2013-12-05
Packaged: 2018-01-03 13:26:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1070993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzymisslizzie/pseuds/dizzymisslizzie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joanna and Jim discuss fate on shore leave as friends, rather than crew members, and the McCoy daughter shows the extent of her skepticism.</p>
<p>(Part of a series about the development of their relationship, from friendship to something a little... more.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Such Thing as Fate.

" Well, maybe it was _fate_."

Even in the constant, low hum of chatter echoing through the small bar where they’ve settled in for a few hours and the twang of country music filtering through old speakers, Joanna hears his words clearly, and pauses in lifting her drink to her lips, smirks, before finishing the action - carefully, she places the glass down on its coaster, and leans forward, just slightly.

“ _Fate?_ ” She almost laughs   _almost_. “You’re kidding me. You’re... _not_ kidding me. Mister James Tiberius _'I don't believe in no-win scenarios'_ Kirk is tryin’ to tell me that the fact that I ended up on the Enterprise was _fate_?”

She’s never taken him for a man of that kind of faith. Divine plans, destiny, universal constants… it never seemed like his cup of tea, so to speak.

" _Hey_ , now I’m not saying it was. I’m just saying it _might_ be,” he says defensively, hands thrown up in a friendly surrender. “And — I never said that fate doesn’t exist, either. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. It just doesn’t apply to _me_ , either way.” Cue the cocky grin that lights up those brilliant blue eyes of his, and another swallowed sip of whiskey.

Sometimes, that goddamned grin makes Joanna want to _punch_ him.

"I mean, if you think about it —” There it is, that inability to shut his mouth after you get a few drinks in him, but with the pleasant buzz she has going, she doesn’t mind. “It’s pretty hard to ignore. Your dad is a doctor. You grow up, and you become a nurse  ”

“ Because I wanted to help people. He was my _inspiration_ ,” she cuts in, brow arched skeptically and smile slowly spreading on her lips.

“ he joins Starfleet after the divorce, then _you_ go and join, too —”

“... because I felt like my skills were needed, and I wanted to be more than just some nurse with no respect in a piss-poor Atlanta hospital.”

"And you somehow end up on the same ship by _chance_?”

" _Good_ nurses are in short supply.”

She’s smirking, now, and now it’s Jim’s turn to roll his eyes, to tease. “Wow, and you say _I’m_ the egotistical one.”

"I'm just — not sure I believe there's such a thing as fate, that's all.” Joanna scrunches up her nose and finishes off her glass of bourbon in one swallow, leans back in her rickety bar chair, crosses her arms over her chest and fixes him with an expectant look. “But, to each their own, I guess.”

" _Buzzkill_.”

Joanna laughs, then, and flicks a peanut shell at him. “You know it, _asshole_.”


End file.
